God's word glorious. This is why Paul commanded Timothy, do not neglect the public reading. That God visits the public reading of the gathered church, uses it supernaturally. And I pray that you will increasingly, as we'll see next week, yearn and thirst and hunger for more of this word. Let's pray. Father, we want to thank you. For the gifts you have given us, most supremely the gift of your Son. And Father, even as we read through Revelation again this morning, oh that Christ would become increasingly precious to your people. And Father, for those who can sit under the reading of Revelation 16 or 1 Peter 1 and remain unmoved, Father, would you please grant them a new heart? Would you purify them from their wicked and evil deeds that flow out of their wicked and evil heart? Father, we're so thankful for the promise of the new covenant, that not only would you give your people a new heart, but you would write your law upon that heart, and your commandments would become sweet no longer a burden, but a delight through which we can bring glory to our Father in heaven. We pray now, Father, that this living Word would grant life, that this abiding Word would encourage us to abide more fully in Christ, that we would leave here with greater faith, intensified hope, and a deeper love, not only for you, Triune God, not only for the world, but from this text, especially for your elect. Father, I pray for this at Grace Community. Would you give us a greater love for the brothers and sisters, so that the watching world would see that we truly belong to Christ, that the gospel not just informs our mind, but works in our heart, and it moves us from this prevailing self-love to a newfound love, sacrificial love for the things and the people that God himself loves. Father, we pray as we always ask in pastor's office that you would save your elect and then sanctify your elect and help us to live in anticipation for the day when you will glorify your elect when Christ returns. Father, we ask be glorified even as you accomplish this by your spirit through the word for your son, we ask in his name, amen. Please be seated. So you'll notice in verse 21 that Peter, who has been given the same truths as the Apostle Paul, ends with two thirds of a beautiful trinity, faith and hope What completes the triangle according to 1 Corinthians 13? Now there's three things that are to characterize the Christian, faith, hope, and? Fill it in, love. And the greatest of these is love. And so Peter is going to now move from our new birth, which happens by God's sovereign initiative, which results not only in faith, which produces hope, But faith also works, according to Galatians, in love. It's the barometer of your faith. A lot of people say, well, I believe in the truths of the gospel. And you should be able to say, well, let's check that claim out. And how would you? What is the litmus test to see if Ryan really believes in the things that he professes to believe? He would say, let's get the love-o-meter out and let's see, does Ryan love Christ increasingly? Or has his love grown cold? The antidote which we will see next week to grow in these graces is the word of God. This life imparting, abiding, everlasting word. And so Peter is now moving from the faith that unites us to Christ and the hope that helps us to yearn for him to a love. Faith in the past action of what God has done in Christ produces this forward-looking hope. They're linked. Hope flows out of faith. But you know what? Love flows out of faith. It really does. And as we will see, love is the preeminent fruit that distinguishes Who really does belong to God? And so as we work through our text, verses 22 through 25, there's gonna be some various questions that I want to ask of it and to answer. But there's only one command. And what Peter has done, as we've seen in the last two sermons, is he gives a command, an imperative, in the present tense. So keep loving. But then he sort of modifies it or grounds it in two participles. Those are the I-N-G, verbs. Having purified. So that's not the command. He doesn't command you to purify yourself. He doesn't command you to be born again. In verse 23, literally says, having been born again. So here are the two parables. Having purified, having been born again, love one another. So that's the one thing I want you to leave with. And we're going to define what this love is by the Bible because we have been bombarded and continue to be bombarded by a world which wants to foist its definition of love upon the church. And we need to say, no, back to the scriptures, back to the word of God. Let God define what love is. Quickly before I move, if you want to sort of understand where I'm coming from with some of these thoughts, I'm deriving a lot of this from a book that has profoundly impacted me called Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves, and in it, When he gets to the practical application, he's going to say that the holy life flows out of the loving life. That God is holy because God is love. And that the church then is to be a holy or a set-aside people because we have a holy or a set-aside, a set-apart love. That our love is different from the love of what the cults preach or a love of what the secularists preach. that what sets us apart is our love, because it is a love that has been divinely imparted to us in regeneration. It's God's love that transforms us, but now it's God love that works throughout us and transforms the church and transforms this world. I'll show you from it, but if you really want to sort of wrestle with it, I would encourage you to pick it up and read it. The command to be holy is not severed from the command to love. Actually, the command to be holy flows out of the command to love. And I will say this, that if you do not have a profound love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, I don't care how much scripture you can quote or what catechisms you can recite, you are not holy the way the Bible defines holy. Some of us hold some of these people up on pedestals. And we sometimes are wowed. But when I remember studying Ephesians, you know what a holy, mature Christian is? One who loves his brothers and sisters in Christ. Why? Because they profoundly love Jesus Christ. And as they are conformed into his image, who did Christ love and give his life for? The church. So, just think through this with me. If Christ preeminently loves His bride, and sacrificed His life for her, not just on the cross, but as some scholars say, that Christ's whole ministry was, as it were, a form of crucifixion, which culminated or climaxed on the tree. But He continued to sacrificially pour out His life for the church. If that's Christ, and He is the Holy One, And we want to be holy, and we're conformed into the image of Christ, and we don't sacrificially give our lives for the church. How can we say we bear his image? And that's what Peter's getting at. You're born again, and God is your father, and you're being made into the image of God as you follow in the steps of Christ. You will increasingly become more like God. You can read that, actually, in 2 Peter 1. that God has imparted into us the divine nature. And the essence of that divine nature is love. Not sloppy agape love, but I would call peculiar love. First for God, and then for those whom God loves. We are to do good to everyone, but especially to the household of faith. Okay, so let's dig into it. So, we have here the command, love one another. Love one another. And we're gonna see, who are the one another's? Is it just an indiscriminate love for every single person in the world? No. In this context, and in the context of the New Testament, the one another's that we are to love one another with earnestly is the church. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You cannot, Love other Christians until you have purified your souls. Let me give you another translation. This is from a commentator, and I thought they did an excellent job. Listen to this. Because your lives are set apart by obedience to the truth, love. So this is what happens. God sets us apart for himself. But God also sets us apart for himself through obedience or for obedience. And so his command to love the brethren is not optional. You've been set apart for obedience. Oh, oh, you mean like going to church or not lusting and using my words rightly? Yes, all those things. But there's a command a lot of Christians don't think about. And it's probably the most dominant command given by Christ to the church. And it's to love one another. A lot of people, we just sort of skip that. Of course we do. You cannot love one another from your heart until you have a new heart. So let me ask this. This is where pastors start meddling. I'm happy that you're here this morning. But do you love your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Is coming to church a chore? Are you some of those people who just can't wait to get out the door so you can go and really do what you want to do? Don't nod yet, Levi. You'll nod when I give the altar call. I don't do those. But he's saying evidence of conversion is love. I'm gonna show you some texts from 1 John. So when does this ability to love the brothers happen? The conversion. It's an interesting picture of conversion. I've shown you the circles. You guys are going to be tired of circles, but there's one circle here and there's one circle here. And by nature, you're a child of wrath. You belong to the devil and you follow the course of this world. Various texts in the New Testament. You're in the realm of the unholy. And what God does in his electing grace, he sets his love upon his people, and he transfers them over into this new realm, into this sanctification, this realm of holiness. But he does it for all his people. So this is where you are now. You're no longer in this realm. And if you love this realm more, even though you come to church and you kind of interact with the new realm, you don't love your brothers, you don't love Christians, I'm going to say some ouchy things, and I hope I don't yell them. You're probably not saved. If you have no love for Christians, not Pastor Ryan, but the inspired apostles of the New Testament would say, you've never been born again. By this, we have passed from death to life. If what? We believe the gospel? Well, of course. But you know what John says? By this, you can know that you've passed out of this realm of death into this realm of life if you what? Love the brothers. This is huge. And it's this picture of being purified or set apart. Right, when he says, be holy, hegeos, having been into the sanctification, it's another hege word. Well, this is another hege verb. You were purified at your conversion when you obeyed the truth. Okay, so go back to the beginning here. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the setting apart of the spirit, for what? For obedience. God elected you unto obedience. And what Peter's saying is that it's not just a once for all believing the gospel. Right, so God caused you to be born again, and you love Christ, and you obey the gospel. But this part of the fall is to be ongoing, and he is setting you increasingly apart to love Christ and to obey the gospel. And so a radical change happens. Your souls are purified by your obedience. To which I would ask, have you obeyed the gospel summons? When Paul's preaching, he doesn't say, and God requests all men everywhere to repent. You know what it says? God commands all people everywhere to repent. Look in chapter two. It says here, talking about unbelievers, they stumble because they what? Disobey the gospel, as they were destined to do. Have you obeyed the gospel? The first thing to obedience is believing it, faith. How do you know you've believed the gospel? Well, we're going to see not only hope, but love. It's obedience to the truth, and that's just another way of saying the gospel. the truth of the gospel. So here's the when, if you will. When are we enabled to love our brothers and sisters? Only after we've been converted, which is a picture of being purified. What a beautiful picture. Obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love. So how are we to love? Sincerely. Interesting, interesting. In the Greek, it literally says unhypocritically. So that means that there is a way to sort of put on the show. And what Peter's going to do is he's actually going to say that unhypocritically really means just from the heart. Is there a welling up within your heart when you're with the people of God, to love them sacrificially and to serve them unreservedly? Well, that's evidence then of the one, that you have believed the gospel. That Christ became precious to you. But not only Christ, but Christ's people. What kind of love? It's unhypocritical. The same word is used actually in Romans 12. Actually, turn there. It's interesting. I've been enamored with a new translation that's coming out. And they actually get it right. So one thing you're going to learn over time is what is a participle? It's an ING verb that's linked to a main verb. So make disciples, and then there's participles. Going, baptizing, teaching. But the main thing is to make disciples. And so what Paul is doing here in Romans 12 is he's saying the main thing. Let love be unhypocritical. Unfortunately, the ESV just says genuine. That's a good translation, but literally, let it be unhypocritical. And then for the rest of that section in Romans 12, those are all participles. What does it look like to love? It looks like this in Romans 12, or it looks like this. in 1 Peter 1, that it's now a sincere brotherly love. Turn to Ezekiel 36. I know we're flipping around a lot, and that's okay, but this was the problem with Israel, is that not only could they not love God rightly, but they couldn't love one another rightly. And that's actually one of the new covenant promises, is that God would unite his people. You see it all throughout the prophets, that when this son of David would come, that he would reunite the people of God in himself. But to be united, the people actually need to have a new heart. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. It's so rich, but I'm actually going to start in verse 22. I would encourage you, though, to read verses 16 to 21 first, but let's start in verse 22. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Yahweh Elohim, or the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my set-apart name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. Okay? And so the holiness of God's people is always meant to be a light to the nations. It's always meant to be a testimony to the nations of this different God. Who is like you, O Yahweh, among the gods? Well, how do the nations see that Yahweh is different? by the holy or the different or the set apart from, set apart to life of those who belong to him. And so God judges his people, but he says, ah, because I am jealous for the sake of my name, I am going to do a mighty work in your midst when I send my son. Verse 23, and I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. How? By giving his people a new heart. which has been profaned among the nations, in which you have profaned among them, and the nations will know that I am Yahweh, declares Yahweh Elohim. When through you I vindicate my holiness before your eyes, and you're like, how, how, how are you going to do this? I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land, and I will sprinkle you with clean water. And you shall be clean from all of your uncleannesses. This is the language Peter's using. Having been purified in the soul. Okay? It's a cleansing work. We're defiled by our sin and we need to be cleansed. And from all your idols, I will cleanse you. You know what the number one idol in the world is? You're like, um, Baal. No. Chemosh? Uh-uh. Asherah? Uh-uh. Some of the Catholic idols? Uh-uh. Some of the self. Every one of those idols ultimately flows out of self. So God is going to cleanse you from your love of self, of this sort of great gravitational pull to make all things exist for you and to fall into line for your glory. No, no, no. I'm going to cleanse you from all of your idols. Listen, verse 26. Right? How does God cleanse us from our idols? Have you ever heard the John Calvin quote? That the human heart is a what? It's a factory of idols. Getting somebody to switch from one religion to another doesn't cure because the heart perpetually makes idols in its own image. Whether it's in Exodus 32 or whether it's in Lethbridge in 2021. You need a new heart. Because you will always worship what you love most. And our problem in Adam is that we love self most. And we worship ourselves and other things that represent it. And God says, to purge you, I need to give you a new heart. And this new heart will have a new love. A holy love. a set-apart love, a different love. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey all my rules. So hold that in your mind and let me read you a couple of verses that I was thinking about. Because you're thinking of statutes or commandments, and are you thinking of the Ten Commandments? Yes. But listen to these following verses. A new commandment I give you. Okay, so God gives us a new heart, and we love now to obey from the heart these commandments. They're not grievous. So here's a barometer. Here's a thermometer to see where your heart is. Do you love to obey God's commands? Well, of course I do. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. This is John 13. On the eve of his crucifixion, here's Jesus summarizing what it means to follow him. See, understand that if you love God and love your neighbor, you will keep not only the Ten Commandments, but all of God's commandments. If I love Charles, I'm not gonna steal from him. I'm not gonna covet things of him. Children, if you love your parents, you're not going to dishonor them. See how that works? Luther was right that actually a love for God that comes from the Holy Spirit enables you to keep all the other commands because you will always do what you love. If you're overwhelmingly in love with God and his people, you will not have to worry about which commands. Augustine said it well. Love and you will not sin. And all sin is ultimately disordered love. You love things more than God, you love things more than your neighbor. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Here it is. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. To which you say, I can't love like that. To which I say, of course you can't, which is why you must be born again. Your impure heart can't love what is pure, so you need to be purified. So obey the gospel. Believe it. How about this? 1 John chapter 3. For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. And if you were to read 1 John, the one another is not just some amorphous, vague, indiscriminate, faceless people. It's actually the church, other believers. This is the beginning. Love one another. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love, abides in death. By this we know, love, that Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought also." So remember the image of God. Christ is the Holy One. The Holy One who called you, be like Him. Christ laid down His life. Are you getting it? Are you understanding what holiness is now? Sacrificially giving of yourself for your brothers because the Father delights in His Son's bride. Hey, it's not just, oh, I won't curse, or oh, I'll wear a fancy suit, or oh, I'll read the Bible a lot. Those are great. But I think John is sort of touching on something that we forget so often, that holiness is actually holy love. If anyone has, so what does it look like? If anyone has this world's goods and sees his brother or sister in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Right? This is the new heart of Ezekiel 11 or Ezekiel 36 or Jeremiah 31. This is the evidence of the Spirit. Right? The Spirit sets apart in love the elect. If I'm filled with the Spirit, what will happen? I will increasingly begin to set apart the elect to love them. I know some of you don't like that language. Please forgive me, but it's just New Testament language. God has an elect people. I love my neighbor, but you know what makes me a holy husband? Not by treating my neighbor the same way I treat my wife or my kids. There are degrees. You want to be a holy, then love what God loves. Yes, he loves the world, but he preeminently loves his son who gave his life for the elect. Little children. Ah, same word, technos, as obedient children love. Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And this is his commandment, okay? You may have forgotten already, but in Ezekiel 36, God says, I will cause you to keep my commandments. 613, which one? We get all confused. You can summarize it this way, love. If you love from the heart, you will do what pleases God. Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. See, this is obedience to the truth. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and... Okay, I know it's hot in here, but just think through this with me. I'm trying to be a little more interactional here. You're like, well, command is in the singular. You grammar nerd! This is his commandment, not commandmints. Are you tracking with me? You're thinking there should be one commandment. This is his commandment. Believe in the name of his son. Check! And, which means what? That they're linked like this. The two commandments are really one. That if you believe in the name of his son, right? You are purified by your obedience to Christ. What is the evidence of your obedience to Christ? You have love for one another just as He, Christ, has commanded us. Two more, two more. If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot, is not able to love God whom he has not seen. See how that works? Oh, I love God. Why do you never spend time with the people of God? Why do you not delight to be with them? Why do you do everything you can to be with other people who do not know Christ? This is just now the pastor's heart that's broken. There's a fellowship meal, or there's grace groups, or there's things where the elders are like, how can we provide ways for the church to gather and express love? And you're like, no thanks, Sunday morning for an hour to listen to a pastor is enough for me. I get it, it wears me out to listen to myself for an hour, but this is to spur you on to love and to good deeds. I think what has happened in the last year has exposed the selfish motivation for most Christians with regards to coming to church. You know what most people think church is? An event predominated by a guy speaking. Check, learn some truths, gone. How many people come to church to serve and show love. I'm starving. I want to go and share the gospel with that person. I want to rejoice with them. Now, I know this makes us uncomfortable, but this is Ryan thinking, and how have we as the elders kind of fit into this? You know why e-church has become so popular? Because e-church is the result of me-church. I literally just came up with that now. Right? So if church is all about me being served, give me a sermon pastor. Greet me usher. Give me something. Wash my kids. You know what? I don't even have to drive to church now. You can serve me. And it's just like at McDonald's. I don't even have to walk in now. I just put in what stall I'm in. They bring it out to me. I love this. But for those of you who love to love the brothers, E-church is hard. And this is not a shot for those whose convictions are not allowing them together. But I'm just saying, we're going to see a huge fallout now that churches are reopening. Because people have never been taught that you come to church to serve and to express love to your brothers, not just to hear a long-winded preacher give you a sermon from the Word of God. No, you need that. That's to spur you on. But you can get better sermons online. Trust me. I listen to them all week. But this is actually fundamental to your holiness. Let me defend the pastors for a moment. This is why we kept the church open. Not to say we're in this group or we're tough or we're rebels. We said, from the New Testament, what are the ways that we can offer the church to grow in love? That's what a good pastor does, is how can we provide opportunities And if the New Testament says that the primary opportunity for the church to gather and express love is on Sunday, then why would we cancel the service on Sunday? Do you understand that there's forces at work in this world that are invisible? Our battle's not against flesh and blood, I get it. We're not railing against the government. It's against invisible forces and cosmic powers in the heavenly places. And do you understand, Satan wants to do everything he can from keeping Christians, from seeing Christians. You know what happens when Christians don't see Christians? They gossip. And they rail against one another on Facebook. And they become bitter. Look at, go to chapter two. Ah, I'm losing where I am, but that's okay. A brother encouraged me just to trust the Lord. I've been praying all week. Right? This is what happens when you don't gather, when you're not intentional about love. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. Satan loves when Christians slander. Pro-mask, anti-mask, you're pro-vaccine, anti-vaccine, you're pro-gathering, anti-gathering. It's so easy to get angry about our brothers and sisters who we do not see. Okay, so some people might disagree with us, but I want you to know the heart of the elder's decision. You might disagree with it, I get it. But when Peter says that we are to exercise love for one another, this is it. So go back to verse one. In chapter one, sorry. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere, a sincere brotherly love. Decent translation. Literally, it's love of the brothers. This is a family love. Philadelphia. That's where you get filial love from. Love of brothers. Fileo Adolphos. This is a special love. How else is love used? We're almost finished, but I looked these up last night in 1 Peter. Listen to some of these verses here. Though you have not seen Christ, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is filled or inexpressible and filled with glory. What Peter's going to say is you don't see Christ, and yet you love Him. And the reason why we know that you love Him is because you love the brothers. 1 Peter 2.17, honor everyone, love the brothers, love the brotherhood. 1 Peter 3.8, finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love. a tender heart and a humble mind. You see how important this is? Right, when Peter's saying this is how you are to live as God's exiled community, it's love. You see it. Love for one another. It's this word, Philadelphia, over and over and over and over. Listen to this one. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. And then the last one. This is an interesting one. It's 514. Greet one another en philemati agapes. Did that impress you? It didn't impress me because I mispronounced it. With the kiss of love. But you know what kiss is in Greek? Philematos. Phile, phileo. So the NLT says this, greet each other with Christian love. That's impossible to do online. I love thumbs up and smiley faces, the heart. That's not this Greek word. Greet one another with this philemity of love, an expression of love, a kiss of love, a handshake, a hug, a bro hug. This is what it looks like in community. And when the world sees a persecuted people loving one another, it provides an apologetic. That's that Greek word we saw last week, apologia, a defense, a reasonable defense of why the gospel is legit. So this is what Peter's commanding us to. For sincere brotherly love, love one another. He's enabled you to love your brothers. So love them. Earnestly. Ectenos. Ect means sort of this limit. Love to your limits. It's the picture of stretching forward as far as you can. That's how God, I can't love the brothers. And the Bible says you've not been born again. But since you have been purified for brotherly love, love. Does that make sense? God saved you to do this. So do it. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Perhaps maybe just from the heart, which is still a good translation, but love one another earnestly from a pure heart. And we saw from 1 John that this is not some amorphous vagary. You should be praying, Lord, what does this look like for me? So let me give you a couple of baby steps. Love is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. If you neglect it, it withers. Okay, so you actually have to do things. See, agapao is not the kind of love that is based on feeling or emotion. It's actually a settled expression of love that is sacrificial and intentional. It's a love of the will. It's the choosing love. It's not like, well, that brother really gets on my nerves, so I'm not going to do that. No, it's the kind of love that says, you have shed abroad your love, God, in my heart. And I'm going to choose to love them in practical ways. So that's why some Christians just get so annoyed. They can't be part of a grace group because other Christians annoy them. Well, that's not a love from the heart. So let me give you some ways to build it up. Just be around Christians. Do whatever you can. Look at your calendar and say, am I intentional with my calendar to be around Christians? To which I know, I always hear the response, well, it's always so superficial. Husbands and wives, I will guarantee that the first conversation you had with your now husband or wife was not profound or deep. And if you are, you're like the 1%. You know what my first conversations were with Christina? I'm getting to know her. I'm just being around her. That's why some Christians still are single. They're still picky. Oh, I can't stand them. I can't stand them. Get around them. And you know what happens? If they're truly a Christian, and you're truly a Christian, love will happen. No more excuses. I know they're annoying. I know I'm annoying. But this is how God sanctifies his people. So how do you show brotherly love? You gotta be around the brothers. Christianity's not just showing up for an hour. It really isn't. Have people over to your house. We're gonna see, actually, above all, love one another. And in the next verse, show hospitality without grumbling. It'll be amazing that the more you get to know these people, the more you will fall in love with them. And I've seen it in this church. I've seen it. And I want to encourage you. But I'm an introvert. then you're going to have to just rely way more on God's grace than the extrovert. It doesn't lessen the commandment. If I want to get into medicine, well, I'm not as smart as this fellow. Well, you just have to study harder then. So get around Christians and choose to love them because God has enabled you to love them. Command what you will, will what you command. Lord, this is hard. Which is why Peter says, grace and peace be multiplied to you. Because you're part of a broken church full of sinners just like you. I heard that. Two extra minutes now. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. If you're having a hard time loving your brothers from a pure heart, what should you pray for? A pure heart, very good. Lord, purify my heart. See, this part is in verse 22, having purified your souls, it talks about something you've done in conversion, but something you continue to do. So keep believing the gospel. You know what I see when I see Christians who can't love one another? People who really don't believe the gospel. They know the gospel, but they don't believe the gospel, because the fruit of faith is love. Verse 23, this is the how. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God. Okay, so faith is a muscle, and you need to practice it. You need to use it to build it. So there used to be a bodybuilder in our church. He's no longer here. He moved up north. And so he's always working out. And that's essential. You need to use your muscles. but to grow muscles, you need to feed. Right? You just need to. Muscles just don't show up out of nowhere. I am a perfect ex... So, you've been born again, not of perishable seed. And he's used this before, this idea of perishable versus imperishable. You were given this new life, and you were given this new love, how? Through the word of God. Okay, so how does your love for brothers in Greece be around them? determined to love them, and feed on the word of God. Right? The guy who's not eating, he can try to lift weights. Eventually, he can't, because you need energy. You need sustenance. And the word that gives us new life sustains life. And that's what he's saying here. It's a life-giving and a life-sustaining word. See it? You were born again. I can't love. Yes, you can. You've been born again. I can't love. Yes, you can. The same word that gave you life will give you this new life in greater measure. This new word that gave you love will increase your love. You guys tracking? Okay, this is not just like devotional Chuck. This is like Ryan after he runs way too much on Saturday and his calves are like just on fire and I come home and I start drinking and I start just eating like a beast. Why? Because I'm famished. You have been born again so you can love. How were you born again? Through the living and abiding word of God. Is the word of God precious to you? See, I don't want to be legalistic. I just want to say, if you want to increase your love for the brothers, increase the book that enables and sustains and encourages you to do that. That's what reading the Bible is. It's not just, what can I learn? How can I feast? And as Peter is going to do, he's going to say, four. He's going to quote scripture. All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. I would encourage you to go and read all of Isaiah chapter 40, because what is promised there is that God is going to redeem His people. Not individuals, but His people who are in exile. Okay, and he's contrasting all the glory of the Babylonians, and of course, for Peter's audience, the glory of the Romans who were persecuting the Christians, and he's saying, the word that caused you to be born again, it will live forever. Why would you seek all the other glories that perish through you, Colossians 2? Okay? And so he's saying, if you want to live rightly, if you want to be holy, if you want to live in reverent fear through love, feed on the word of God. All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. And Peter's saying, why would you spend time pursuing all these other things that are not abiding? And I think this is a self-check time. There's a lot of Christians who pursue all kinds of things that are fading. Now, it's not wrong, you know, to work out, or it's not wrong to do all these things, but do you understand? They're temporal. This is not. The Word of the Lord abides, or it remains forever. And listen to this. I love it. The ESV doesn't translate it well. I got this from the Legacy, and it translates it correct. but the word of the Lord endures forever. Listen to this, and this is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news. Okay, so go back to Isaiah, and as the gospel is preached, and as the people are longing for the Lord to work, Peter says, as Isaiah is preached, and who it pointed towards, Christ, and as you receive it as good news, it actually transforms you. This is good news. A right relationship with God, a right relationship with your brothers, and you become a light to the nations. So I think we can probably close there. As you desire now to be holy, it requires your brothers and sisters in Christ. It requires intentionality. It's a premeditated holiness. It's a premeditated love. And it's actually a premeditated desire to be in the Word of God. Is that describing you? And you can feel beat up, but this is the glory of repentance. Lord, I've not been loving the way I should. I've actually been distancing myself from the brothers. I've not been in the Word of God lately. To which God says, return. Return. God will restore you. And we'll see next week as we build on it. It's going to require not just putting on certain things, it's going to require putting off other things like malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Let me close with a couple of highlights here. Holiness is forged in the context of community. I think Tony often told me that the church is like a greenhouse. You really want to grow in holiness? really become a part of a church. If not this church, some local church. And when I mean a part of, I don't mean just become a member of. Integrate into it. Really integrate into it. Holiness is forged in the context of Christian community, of loving Christian community. Second, we are set apart not merely by our knowledge of the gospel, but our obedience to it. God commands you to love your brothers and sisters. Third, the Word not only conceives our new life, it sustains it. It's the living and abiding. So as God transformed you through the Word, He continues to transform you through the Word. Where is it? I have one last quote and then I'm done. This is from a commentator. Peter presents earnest love within the Christian community as the hallmark of having been converted. I want us to redefine what it means. But when you ask people, have you been saved, and they start reciting truths to you, that's great. But you know how you can tell if someone's been set apart for brotherly love? If they exercise brotherly love. Our covenant relationship with God is never an individual matter. To be chosen by God, to be set apart by the Spirit, is to be chosen by God into the realm of others who have been chosen by God. The Christian life cannot be lived authentically in isolation. So Peter's moving now from personal holiness to corporate holiness, which are inseparable. Let me give you the example And a tragic example, often I see this guy quoted on Facebook, of which I'm trying to stay off of, actually, for my own sanctification. His name's Arthur Pink. Anyone ever heard of Arthur Pink? He's a phenomenal theologian. And prior to this sermon, I would have thought he was one of the holiest guys to ever live. But in light of this, I can't say that any longer. It's actually a tragic story. I remember reading his biography over ten years ago. and how he just became increasingly disgruntled from church to church to church to church, and he began to become bitter against God's people, and there's always something wrong with them. And this guy who churned out commentaries and letters and books died a pathetic life. Bailey was at his funeral. He had not gone to church in the last decades of his life, and his wife was miserable. And yet he's still championed all over Facebook as this great guy full of great quotes. And I want to challenge you to see holiness scripturally, not just how much knowledge. Us reformed people love that. Please don't say, oh, Ryan knows Greek, and he knows Hebrew, and he's memorized a ton of scripture. You know what the barometer is? Does Ryan sacrifice for his brothers and sisters? Does he give up his time? Does he give up his money? Does he give up his convenience and comforts the way Christ did for me? And if you want to grow in holiness, ask God for this kind of love and be filled with the Spirit, for the fruit of the Spirit is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Lastly, I might not be talking to everyone here, but I'm quite certain that everyone here knows people like this in their lives. You know somebody who refuses to be around other Christians. Family members, co-workers, everybody's a Christian. I love Jesus, just not his people. Rebuke such people. I'm spiritual, I'm just not religious, which means they don't like church. Well then find a new church. So the pastor always gets in trouble for saying things that hurt people's feelings. Would you join me in my suffering and tell people who you know who are avoiding Christian community that they need to repent? The hallmark of Christianity is love for Christ, but Christ is united to his people, so you cannot say you love Christ, whom you can't see, and not love the believers in him whom you can. This is hard, and it hurts. But if you care for people's holiness, tell them. You can't live this on your own, and you're actually sinning against Christ. And you can be out on the streets, sharing the gospel, but if you're not part of a good local church, That's not holy evangelism. So that's my challenge to you. I know people in my life, and probably a lot of you do too. Can I encourage you to sort of regurgitate the sermon, maybe even more clearly than the way I tried to present it to you, and just say, there's an inconsistency in your life. You've been set apart from this world for God and his people. And as we live this way, says Peter, we're a city on a hill. And God will use that love to spread his kingdom. That makes sense? How do we live? Holy, in fear, and that's all grounded in love, which is the fruit of faith. And faith comes by hearing. Follow that? Father, we love you. We just pray that you would increase our faith. Even the disciples, when they had a hard time forgiving, they asked actually for you to increase their faith. And Father, if there are those in our life who are brothers and sisters whom we are having a hard time forgiving, would you increase our faith? Would you help us actually to believe not only the gospel that says in Christ we are cleansed from our sin, but we've also been cleansed for obedience, to forgive our brothers and our sisters, to bear with them patiently in love, to be humble around them, to be meek, to be sacrificial, would you help us? Father, we need your Holy Spirit to help us. We long to be holy, even as you who called us is holy. So Father, would you help us as a church practically live a life of Spirit-empowered brotherly love? Would we show to this world that we belong to Christ by our love for one another? Father, I pray, even as we gather as an oikos for a meeting after, as we eat I pray even for those, Lord, who are often quick to get away from the body, even on Sunday, that they would linger a little longer to get to know these other souls for whom you have given your blood and to whose family we all belong. Lord, we are selfish, so cure us of our selfishness by immersing ourselves more deeply in the gospel. Would you give us the grace now to obey it. I pray for unbelievers, Father, that right now they would obey the summons to repent and believe the gospel. And for us, Lord, who are lacking in love, I pray that you would help us to obey the gospel, to repent and believe afresh. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.